Global health is about
thinking beyond our
domestic health issues
in a globalized world.
There are things that
are good for all humanity,
and this is where
our efforts should go to.

Halo,
compassionate viewers,
and welcome to today’s
Healthy Living featuring
Dr. Juan Garay Amores,
health-team coordinator
at the European
Commission
Directorate General
for Development.

Originally from Spain,
this noble public health
physician spent many
years in remote areas
of sub-Saharan Africa,
caring for children,
mothers, the elderly
and others in need.
Seeking to be of service
to the international
community, in 2002
Dr. Garay joined
the European Commission,
where he continues to
exercise his passion for
bettering global health.

My main work,
and I’m a doctor,
has been on health, and
that has been fascinating
over this decade.
I don’t think there is
a decade in history
that has brought
so many changes in
the international health
and global health debates.
And we are exactly now
at the moment where
global health thinking
and approaches are
dramatically changing.

So being at the heart of it
and trying
to push some ideas
in the European Union
of addressing
global health challenges
has been fascinating.
My two main “babies”
are the work on
children’s rights,
and of course,
the continuous commitment
to health in the world.

The most critical problem
facing our planet today
is climate change.
Dr. Garay now shares
his concerns about
this crisis and explains its
impact on world health.

I think climate change
is going to affect us all.
But in every change
in society, those
who are more vulnerable
suffer most.
Many of the populations
in developing countries
are more vulnerable
to any disaster, because
their social network,
their capacities to
respond to emergencies
is lower.
Climate change will
lead us to challenges like
increased temperatures,
and effect
both communicable
and non-communicable
diseases.

In the changes
in the epidemiology
of some communicable
diseases, there is
an estimate that probably
up to a hundred-million
more people will be
exposed to malaria,
with the current trend
of climate change.
In all those challenges
the health systems
in developing countries
are not as well prepared
to react to greater needs.

Another even more
important challenge,
in my opinion,
is that climate change
is going to affect
the availability of food,
the harvests in many
regions of the world,
and particularly those
which are already
more arid and warm.

So nutrition is
a huge challenge
in the world today, but also
the availability of water.
There are already more
than a billion people that
lack access to safe water,
in combination with
water and sanitation, which
has not progressed much
and many people
in developing countries
still live with
very poor sanitation.
And we really need to act.

Dr. Garay believes
that a simple change
each of us can make
will not only help to
mitigate climate change
but also improve
public health.

We can all live with
far less than what we have.
Not all, but I think many
of us can do with less and
not only not suffer from it,
but probably enjoy life
in a better way.
So I think if we try
a way of living which is
a lot more simple,
and reduce so much
abundance we live with
and link it with solidarity,
there’s the first challenge
of our society.

Dr. Garay has
simplified his own life
in one important way,
and has experienced
great benefits as a result.

I can be proud of saying
that I’ve been
for eight years
in Brussels (Belgium),
basically cycling.
And cycling
has changed my life.
When I cycle every day
in the morning, and I cycle
some 16 kilometers
into town, it's the best time
for thinking.
It's the time when
no one is talking to you,
where you're very often
in nature, because Brussels
is a very beautiful city,
with so many forests
and parks.

And with the oxygen,
with your exercise,
with the quietness,
you have such a nice time
to meditate and reflect
and think.
But it's also so good
for your health.
But it's good for others
as well:
You bring less noise;
you bring less pollution;
you bring even less traffic.
So those things should be
far more promoted
than they are now.
And so in our way of living,
in our way of eating,
in our way of consuming,
we have a lot to contribute
to a better world.

The health issues
in the developed world
are significantly different
from those
in developing countries.
According to Dr. Garay,
most of the diseases
seen in developed nations
are caused by
lifestyle choices.

If we think of the
most developed countries
like Europe,
and you're asking about
our health conditions,
the main attributable risks
of ill health have to do
with a way of living,
which is not adapted
to our own nature.
We walk less than what
we should be walking
or exercise far less.
So we're not using our body
the way our body's
prepared to be used.
And we don't eat right.
We don't rest right.

So we have a lot of
diseases which are based
on chronic inactivity
and not very healthy diets
with excess of fat,
excess of calories, excess of
particularly animal fat.
So a lot of the conditions
in Europe have to do
with this unhealthy way
of living.
And therefore we have
cardiovascular diseases,
Alzheimer disorders and
chronic osteoarthritis,
and a lot of these
are due to this lifestyle.

And it's in contrast
with what happens
in the poorest parts
of the world which,
instead of little exercise,
they often have
conditions of overwork
and sometimes
very demanding
physical situations.
But they also have
less nutrition than what
they need in calories but
mainly in proteins and
in many micronutrients.

And so the main
attributable risks
of ill health
in this part of the world,
where most of these
under-five children
or mothers
during their pregnancy,
they die of issues
related to nutrition,
to poor water,
to poor sanitation.
And in fact, it exemplifies
how unfairly
distributed resources are
in this world.

It is deeply saddening
to see children going
without enough to eat.
Statistics show
that young ones without
proper nourishment
can suffer on average
up to 160 days of illness
per year.
Insufficient nutrition also
intensifies the effects
of a disease
and causes the child
even more anguish.

There are more than
a billion people
who are malnourished,
who are living with
some degree of hunger.
They don't have
enough calories,
enough proteins, and
enough micronutrients
to develop themselves.
This is often
not even captured
in health analyses.

For instance, in many of
the developing countries
and in Africa,
the proportion
of children who live
with very low degrees
of hemoglobin,
with anemia, is amazing.
And they don't
go to the doctor.
They just live with,
let's say, low batteries.
And of course,
their psychological
(development), particularly
their academic,
intellectual development
and others are hampered.
And this is
really, really tragic while
there are more than
a billion people obese
and this is growing.

Dr. Garay emphasizes that
to improve global health
we need to address
the enormous imbalances
in the distribution of
resources, especially food.

So if someone would
come down from Mars
and ask,
“What is going on here?
You have
13-hundred-million
people obese and ill
and suffering from their
obesity, and many others
who are overweight,
probably
over two-billion more.
And yet you let one-billion
people go hungry?
This is not about resources.
There's something wrong
in the way you are ruling
your global community.”

One of the simplest ways
to equitably share
our planet’s wealth
is through
the global adoption
of a plant-based diet.
The livestock industry
consumes 43% of the
world's cereal production
and 85% of the soy grown.
By halting
animal agriculture and
redirecting that food
to humankind, animal
and human suffering
will be alleviated.
Dr. Garay
does not eat meat,
having been influenced
by Mahatma Gandhi's
autobiography, The Story
of My Experiments
with Truth.

And so his friend convinced
(Mahatma) Gandhi to
have chicken that night.
I don't know if
you remember the story.
So he had the chicken
and then he spent
the whole night
dreaming about the chicken
and how the chicken was
crying inside his belly.
And he had
all these images.
And he went back
to a vegetarian diet.
So I started trying
and I must say I also
heard some chickens
crying inside.

And also that linked
with my sensitivity
for animal welfare.
And I’ve seen
animals suffering and
it’s something terrible.
I have not been
in any situation where
I had to kill an animal.
But I know very well
I could never do that.
I respect all life
as much as human life.
And I thought that
a coherent way of living
was not to live on acts
that I wouldn’t do myself.

Being a doctor as well,
there was a sensitivity,
let’s say, to life.
But there was more to that
because as a doctor
I also started reflecting
on our diets.
And in fact,
a large proportion
of the animal food
we take is animal fat
and it is not healthy
for the body.

Dr. Garay believes
that if all of us,
including children, try,
we can truly change
the world for the better.

I remember once
how a group of children
got involved in
helping children
in a remote village
in Africa, and
how that connection
with letters and so on
got them so excited.
And at the end of the year
they could see
by raising money
through their parents,
through their families,
through friends by even
with a choir and singing
they could build a well for
that remote community.

And they saw the impact
of that well
in access to water
on those other children.
Those children
will never forget that.
They could see at
seven, eight years of age
that they can
change the world.
I think solidarity and
communication is essential,
but also living, I think,
in a less destructive way,
(both) in our diet
and in our way
of using resources.

Many thanks
Dr. Juan Garay
for devoting your life to
improving global health
and for your years
of service to humanity.
Through the love
and care of people
such as yourself,
our world is truly uplifted.

Thank you
cherished viewers
for your company today
on Healthy Living.
Coming up next is
Science and Spirituality,
after Noteworthy News.
May we all strive
to protect and nurture
those in need.

For more details on the
European Commission
Directorate General
for Development,
please visit
www.EC.Europa.eu/development